Simon, Here's what I'd do, assuming you downloaded Thunderbird as a tar.gz file. 1. Log on as superuser in a terminal (this will give you the system authority to follow the rest of these steps). 2. untar the file with the following sequence: tar -xzvf thunderbird.~.tar.gz -C /usr/local (This will unpack the files into a Thunderbird directory under /usr/local/) 3. Still as superuser, enter the following command at any system prompt: ln -s /usr/local/thunderbird/thunderbird /usr/bin/thunderbird (This sets up a symbolic link from thunderbird's executable to a "fake" executable in /usr/bin that will trigger whenever you type thunderbird at a system prompt or trigger it from a menu item with thunderbird as a command.) 4. Finally, in whatever window manager you are using, set up a menu item and in the command field within the menu setup window, just type thunderbird. Also, in Gnome, you should be able to go to the "Advanced" section in the Gnome Control Center, find Preferred Applications, and there set thunderbird as your default email client. You'll need to use the full path name, i.e., /usr/bin/thunderbird, when you do that. The full line in that entry should look like this: /usr/bin/thunderbird "%s" or /usr/local/thunderbird/thunderbird "%s" In addition, somewhere in TB's Options section, you can select it as your default email client. (A somewhat less keyboard-intensive approach). Either should work. Al the best, Pete -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Peter N. Spotts | Science Correspondent The Christian Science Monitor One Norway Street, Boston MA 02115 Office: 617-450-2449 | Office in home: 508-520-3139 Email: pspotts@alum.mit.edu | www.csmonitor.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~